On Saturday afternoon, we played Wiz-War with GM Earl; the same great guy who introduced us to the game at Carnage last November. Here are some better shots of his game.

The Magic cards have Wiz-War game card labels adhered to them. Earl decided to use some of his many “commons” as the stock material. He even color-coordinated the Magic cards with the Wiz-War card colors. Very nice.

On Sunday, we played a couple games from the lending library. I can’t remember what this one was called, but I think it was from ThinkFun (Binary Arts). Two players, playing land or water, take turns laying cards to make paths that connect the sides of the garden. It simple, and fun in a non-taxing way.

This game was somewhat more involved. In fact, it was the best tic-tac-toe variation I’ve tried. And the game was beautiful. On a player’s turn, she places a marble and rotates a wooden square 90°.

And the final game we played was a homebrew Transformers RPG based on D&D 4e. The game consisted mostly of three combat scenes, with seven players and a GM. Some fun; some tedious. But the GM was good and the rules were well-thought-out. And we played using transformers! 🙂

Can it really have been over a month since my last blog post? BW asks “What are you? Some sort of blog slacker?” I guess so…

NatureBoy and I attended our first day of Northeast Wars 2009 today, and had a really nice time. For the morning session, we split up. NB was very excited to play a round of HeroScape, which was a big hit last year. I played my first Prime Time Adventures, this one set in the Firefly/Serenity universe.

Beloved Wife came to collect us for a lunch break, then brought us back for an afternoon Wiz-War game with the the same gentleman who introduced us tot he game at Carnage in November and inspired us to create our own Wiz War set. We had a good time chatting about the process of building the set and I got some new energy to get working on our set again.

I worked had over the past couple weeks on the convention booklet, doing some cartography, simple artwork and the book layout. I am quite pleased with the result.

Our gaming getaway concluded on Sunday, and I’m thinking it was a good thing. Our room was located in a high-traffic area of the hotel, so we were roused frequently by late night gamer carousing — especially Beloved Wife, who is a light sleeper. Needless to say, we all were pretty tired.

NatureBoy and I were scheduled to play just one game, Star Trek Fleet Action from 10 am to 2 PM. After breakfast, packing and checking out, we headed to the dealer room where we picked up two D&D 3.5 books at 50% off: the Fiend Folio and Monster Manual III complete our monster sourcebooks collection. BW and NB also each got an oversized die. One dealer had some fun t-shirts, but we resisted the call to spend.

Star Trek Fleet Action was a mixed bag. It was a huge tactical miniatures game, with at least ten players controlling several spaceships each. All the players except one hadn’t played the game from which this homebrew rules set had been derived. The GM has lost his voice from running many games already, and the noisy room made it next to impossible to hear. And even though the players unanimously opted to go with his simplified rules, we still each received a 10-page (or so) booklet of the rules and reference charts. (I should have known when I saw that the GM had provided calculators.)

Today, NatureBoy and I played two games that were new to us; PowerGrid in the morning, and Wiz-War this afternoon. We enjoyed them both, but Wiz-War was much more fun.

PowerGrid is a "euro-game" where players take turns purchasing power plants and power commodities, and powering cities to create income. To play successfully, you have to balance three resources. It was more of a strategy and math puzzle, which was fun in a kind of academic way. In our session, the really expensive power plants came up for auction early,and one player managed to buy the larger wind-power plants. This allowed him to use his money money strictly for buying cities.

The game ended a little earlier than expected. NB did a good job selecting his power plants, but misunderstood the winning conditions. He was kind of frustrated, but was a good sport. I enjoyed it, but I think I like Settlers of Cattan better. I would play it again, though.

Our afternoon game was Wiz-War, and it was a blast. Here’s the description from the convention book:

B35 Wiz War Classic (GM: Earl Waters Table: TH) Play the cult classic Wiz-War game. Wiz-War is a card and board game of dueling wizards and treasure-stealing. Each player represents a wizard who starts the game with two treasures and seven cards that allow the wizard to cast spells. Each wizard battles the other wizards by casting spells and trying to steal two of the opponent’s treasures to win the game. You can also win by eliminating the other wizards. Cast cool spells like fireballs, waterwalls, and the dreaded "It" spell on your opponents or turn invisible, create monsters, or even affect the board game itself to win. Try this magic mayhem on a custom made 3-D game board with movable (and removable) walls, wizards, monsters, and spell effects. 2-6 players. No experience necessary. (2-6 Players) (Saturday 1pm-5pm)

The 3-D game board consists of six maze sections cast from molds by Hirst Arts Fantasy Architecture (and some instructions for making a Wiz War board and accessories) , and beautifully painted (inked, actually); it was gorgeous. I took pictures, but I don’t have the USB cable for my camera : , so I’ll post them later. Each of the wall and door sections can be rearranged, and some game actions caused this to happen. The six square maze sections can be re-arrange, either swapped or rotated, as some cards would indicate.

Each player controls a Wizard, with a home maze section, and two treasures, all color-coded. To win the game, a player must either capture two rival wizards’ treasures or eliminate all the other wizards. On her turn, a wizard can move and use card from her hand to attack, cast spells and create effects. In some ways, the game reminded me of a Ravensburger maze game, the Amazing Labyrinth. The GM mentioned that the game rules and cards sets were available for free online. I will have to look into that. It was a lot of fun and I’d like to play again.

We made our way to the Lake Morey Resort in Fairlee for Carnage. We’ve all been looking forward to getting away for the weekend, even Beloved Wife, who isn’t actually participating in the convention. She’s a crafting geek, though, and brought knitting to keep her content (as well as some homework).

One our way through Randolph, we stopped at Mugwort & Malachite, a new-age shop, to check it out. It was small and dark, but had some nice things. I liked a few of the Dryad Designs statuary. NB picked up a dragon calendar.

We did some meal planning, and picked up a bunch of foods that you can prepare by adding hot water. We also brought fruit, snacks, and tea. But we forgot our electric tea kettle. :O So we stopped by the Price Chopper in West Lebanon, N.H., and bought a small electric kettle and a small crock pot (both on sale).

We had pre-registered for the conference, and we got all the games we requested except for the first slot. Here’s what our schedule looks like:

NB and I will be gaming; BW will be doing a bit of school work, knitting, and enjoying Lake Morey resort. We attended last year and had a good time. This year, we’re looking forward to a bunch of board games, including Robo Rally, Wiz War Classic, Power Grid, and Star Trek Fleet Action.

In fact, we’re not scheduled to playing and role playing games together. I did reserve a slot in a GURPS Prime Directive (i.e., Star Trek) game in the late slot on Saturday, but it’s after my usual bedtime, so I may skip it.